Before the pandemic, Daniel Russell worked some 70 hours a week as a driver for Uber and Lyft. He has since returned to being a teacher.
“In that 70-hour week, I was earning about $10 an hour when you take out the expenses,” Russell told the Southern California Record. “I should have been collecting over time.”
Russell was among the drivers and former drivers who participated in last week’s statewide strike to promote Protecting the Right to Organize Act (Pro Act).
Rally at LAX passenger pick up
| RDU
“The Pro Act will allow us to collectively bargain for safety standards or better pay and would give drivers the right to organize,” said Russell, who is also a Rideshare Drivers United leader and organizer. “I was a nighttime driver and this was a very dangerous job. It's crazy out there. There needs to be way better safety provisions.”
Although the strike did not stop rideshare services entirely for any length of time on July 21, staged protests took place statewide.
"In LA, we had a rally at a park by LAX, we did a picket line at LAX for about four hours right where the Uber and Lyft passengers are picked up," Russell said. "In San Francisco, we protested outside of Uber headquarters and in San Diego, we protested outside Lyft headquarters."
The Pro Act, if approved by Congress, widens protections for employees who want to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace. It would include the three-pronged ABC test and redefine work roles.
“The ABC test basically determined that we do not set our own rates, we are subject to company policies that force us when and where to work and that's why we are not independent contractors,” Russell said.
However, the Pro Act will reportedly impact independent contractors from various industries differently. The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) opposes the Pro Act's inclusion of the ABC test, which differentiates an employee from an independent contractor based on standards that existed before the internet and the gig economy emerged.
“There are Democratic senators who are not in support of the Pro Act so it's sitting stalled on the Senate floor and one of the Democratic senators is Mark Warner who has made the claim that he does not support the Pro Act because he feels that it would harm independent contractors like rideshare drivers,” Russell said. “We want to make it clear that that's not true.”
Warner (D-Virginia) did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He is vice-chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“It's a myth that the Pro Act is not good for independent contractors,” Russell said. “There are others who say it’s not good for independent contractors and those people are basically very often quite frequently people who stand to lose from their stock investments in corporations and stand to lose money from the passage of the Pro Act because these corporations will have to pay their labor fairly.”
App drivers gained employee status after Assembly Bill 5 was approved by the California legislature but their status was reverted back to independent contractor with voter approval of Proposition 22 last year.
“Prop 22 is company-sponsored law written by Uber and Lyft,” Russell added. “It is a written law by a corporation to protect their right to take advantage of their workers with the idea that they were doing something good for their workers under the threat that they would close up shop and leave the state if they didn't get their way. If you can't afford to pay your workers fairly, you shouldn't be in business, bottom line.”
Uber and Lyft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.